Jump to content

just john

Members
  • Posts

    3,562
  • Joined

  • Last visited

    Never

Posts posted by just john

  1. I have read the article Q, and my concerns are not Cyprus, but the thinking of the ECB, and what would happen to other members of the EU who fail, and the knock on effect of that.


     ''The European Central Bank will switch off the cash life support taps for banks in Cyprus wiping out £1.7 billion in British savings after next Monday unless the island signs off on a radical debt-cutting programme with the eurozone and International Monetary Fund.
    Unless a deal is in place the euro's central bank will withdraw "emergency liquidity assistance" leading to the immediate collapse of the two largest Cypriot banks and a financial crash in Cyprus.
    Cypriot banks are totally reliant on the ECB for funding and have taken over €9.1 billion in an emergency programme to ensure cash does not run out.

    Jeroen Dijsselbloem's testimony before MEPs.

    On agreeing a bailout package:

      So, I'm not sure that this package is completely gone and failed, because I don't honestly see many alternatives. There is of course a different way to do the levy, and we're very open to a more fair approach to the way the levy is structured.

    On the bank levy:

    The levy I can strongly defend, because it is a direct way to ask a contribution of the deposits of the banking sector in Cyprus, which is inevitable if you want to a build a package which doesn't bring more loans and more debt to Cyprus than the €10bn I mentioned before.

    I still think it's probably inevitable there will be some kind of levy in the final package that we will agree upon.

    The Eurogroup thinks it's very important that we should have a fair burden share, and that means a larger contribution from large depositors than, of course, from small depositors.

     

     

  2. It's bad enough having tax on prudent savers, what's worse is the lock down on funds, and now the threat that it may all be swallowed up.
    If ever there was a case for spreading savings to maintain fluidity surely this must be up there.
    Cash (in any bank) is no longer King. What now for all the other savers in 'approved' schemes, stocks, bonds, and property? is all to be confiscated to support this unhappy currency? 

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/debt-crisis-live/9945121/Cyprus-bailout-live.html

  3. Years ago we used Brittany, they had the route we preferred and good cabins with breakfast, excellent restaurant, but then it changed, except their prices. We changed our route and used speed ferries, they collapsed, so did P&O on the routes we used, so we used Brittany once more and were extremely disappointed at the value of low service and high price.
    We use LD lines now, on recommendation of friends who switched, excellent value, don't expect anything else; after all it's just a crossing. With traffic seemingly reduced over the last few years, I can't see a way back for Brittany until their pricing becomes competitive and their standards improve.
  4. [quote user="Quillan"] Well I mean to say the Euro sceptics would be well at home in Scotland with Salmond at the tiller. They have a lot in common with him predominantly the ability to lie, talk c*ap and have a low IQ but then they probably wouldn't mind that just to escape the USE and the Euro which lets face it is doing a lot better than both sterling and the pound and suffers less inflation as well but let not the truth stand in the way.[/quote]

    There are statistics and statistics, I'm sure we are all entitled to our view, and equally sure I wouldn't apply the above comments to Hans-Olaf Henkel, former head of Germany's industry federation (BDI) and a chastened europhile -- the "worst error of my professional life" (amongst others in Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal; even the UK doesn't have 50% youth unemployment, riots and US investors laughing)[:)]

     

     

  5. Despite holding a Frequent Traveller card they have been a bit remiss in letting people know what's going on, only after booking my trip did they let me know about the offer of books of 10 or 20 fixed price tickets, which can be shared and used by friends in different vehicles!
    Though having been caught by Speedferries on a similar deal it might make you wonder how long they offer availability.
    Still seems like a good deal though.

    Dear Customer,

    As one of our regular passengers, LD Lines is pleased to advise you of our latest offer of prepaid tickets in bulk.

    This year, we will have two cross channel offers.

    We offer you to purchase 10 crossings for a standard size car (up to 1.85m in height and 5m in length) and up to 2 passengers, including standard reclining seat accommodation for £680 on Portsmouth-Le Havre and £545 on Newhaven-Dieppe.

    Buy a minimum of two lots of ten tickets and we will offer you two additional similar single tickets.

    The 10 tickets are to be used before 10th January, 2014.

    Following receipt of your registration form and full payment, you will receive your membership number by return.

    Unlike previous years, we will be able to take your payment by credit card either in Euros or Pounds without any card fees.

    The crossings, in either direction, can be undertaken by yourself, or can be passed on to parents and friends.

    All reservations must be made to [email protected] using the attached booking form.

    Please note the number of vehicles allocated to this offer will be limited on some sailings.

    In order that we may provide you with the best possible service, you are advised to make your reservations as early as possible. Under no circumstances will reservations be accepted at the terminal on the day of departure.

    Should you require a supplementary service, such as cabin accommodation or transport of a caravan or trailer, your request should be confirmed and paid for when reserving your crossing, and will be subject to availability. Please see attached 2013 Price List.

    Before you confirm your bookings, we strongly advise you to check our website for any cheaper special offers, especially in the lower season.

    Please find attached full terms and conditions of this offer, together with a registration form that should be returned to the address given below as early as possible.

    Please note that the availability of this offer is limited and subscription can be suspended at any time.

    Yours sincerely,

    The Subscription Department

    LD Lines

    Terminal de la Citadelle

    Quai Auguste Brostrom

    B.P 90746 76060 Le Havre

    0033 235 197 863

    Terminal de la Citadelle

    Quai de Brostrom

    BP90746

    F-76060 Le Havre cedex

    Office: + 33 (0)235197863

    DISCLAIMER: This e-mail message and any attachments are confidential
    and may be privileged or otherwise protected by legal rules, and for
    use by the addressee only. If the message is received by anyone other
    than the addressee, please return the message to the sender and delete
    it and any attachments from your computer without copying it or
    disclosing its contents to anyone. Whilst all reasonable care has been
    taken to avoid the transmission of viruses, no responsibility is
    accepted in this regard and the recipient should scan and carry out
    such other checks as it considers appropriate.

  6. [quote user="Frederick"]Cracks  !   The whole EU is like one  big crazy pavement  !  All sorts of political factions springing up dissatisfied  with the ways things have turned out .
    [/quote]

    There are no winners. Each country is blighted in turn, and in different ways. Like Goethe's Sorcerer's Apprentice, they have launched an experiment they cannot control. The broom has a fiendish will of its own.

    A lot of people have been saying this for sometime, meanwhile the deadly behemoth lumbers on, other than a few eurocrats I fail to see a country that is really benefiting; the last few lines of the article says it; roll on a split, so a fix can begin.

  7. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to device;

     Vicky-Pryce-guilty-perverting-course-justice-taking-ex-husband-Chris-Huhnes-speeding-points


    this story was always about bitterness and revenge and now it has come tumbling down on their heads; Huhne, Pryce, Constance Briscoe, now under Police investigation and of course by no means least the Lib Dems, including Vince Cable and the Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott . . .


     

  8. [quote user="sid"]It was only annouced on 24th January that this was being abandoned, and now it's back again! How ridiculous.

    Probably all those people who bought packs of testers (me!) have thrown them away (me!) and will have to buy new ones (not me, I'm not falling for it again!). It's just a moneyspinner for someone with connections!  I must go and take my anti-paranoia medication. 

    http://www.service-public.fr/actualites/002384.html  [/quote]

    This relates to restoration of speed camera signs Sid?

    What next, removal of restrictions on Speed cameras identified by Sat Nav's?

     

  9. [quote user="sweet 17"]

    Can someone please say what "tajine spices" are?

    [/quote]

    Tagine is a personal delight of mine and far too many variations to list; but this is one book to be highly recommended and should have all your answers as well as some recipes that I hope will delight you.

    http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_product_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&productId=371369&cm_mmc=PPCgoogleBase-_---_---_-Easy%20Tagine&utm_source=google&utm_medium=basefeed&utm_campaign=ppc+basefeed&gclid=CJvmwrOE37UCFaHHtAodnSsAVw

  10. [quote user="Frederick"][quote user="You can call me Betty"]That'll really give confidence to outside investors...
    [/quote]

    The American tractor tyres company boss  has already told the unions they are a waste of space and he ran for the hills instead of investing in France ...  He will be waving this news item about and saying "I told you so " even louder today !  Perhaps the French Unionists  have developed a  "World owes us a living gene  " that needs to be bred out of them  ?

    [/quote]

    It pains me to agree, despite loving the place and it's better points, they really have lost the plot and are more intent than ever on demanding the right to self destruct, if this is what the EU is based on then ( I might have said this before[:$]) they are surely doomed, what happened to the concorde spirit, they certainly are not earning their bread at the moment let alone cake. Is it back to poule au pot?

     

  11. Like it or lump it lets not pretend that bankers are solely to blame, just look at the profilgacy of the nation states?


    I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. --Winston Churchill 

    A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. -- G. Gordon Liddy 

    Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. --James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994) 

    Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. -- P.J. O'Rourke, Civil Libertarian 

    Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else. -- Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850) 

    Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. --Ronald Reagan (1986) 

    If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free! -- P. J. O'Rourke 

    In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. --Voltaire (1764) 

    Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you! -- Pericles (430 B.C.) 

    The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. -- Winston Churchill 

    A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have. -- Thomas Jefferson 

    We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. -- Aesop 

    AND THE BEST

    You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity, by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 

    What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 

    The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. 

    You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. 

    When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work, because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation! 

     

  12. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/9888060/Titan-boss-Maurice-Taylor-tells-French-they-have-beautiful-women-but-no-idea-how-to-run-a-business.html

    Industry minister Arnaud Montebourg hit back in a written response in which he told Mr Taylor his comments were “extremist and insulting” and
    displayed “a perfect ignorance of what our country is about”. "Be assured that you can count on me to inspect your tyre imports with a redoubled zeal."

    Mr Taylor has today responded: "You letter shows the extent to which your political class is out of touch with [real] world problems”. 
     "Your letter did not mention why the French government has not stepped in to rescue this Goodyear tyre factory.
    "The extremists are in your government, who have no idea how to build a business.
    "Your government let the wackos of the communist union destroy the highest paying jobs," Mr Taylor told Mr Montebourg.
    But he added: "France does have beautiful women and great wine."
    In a final flourish, he said: “I have visited Normandy, I know what we did for France.”

    Right-wingers warned there was some truth in his tirades. Valérie Pécresse, the former conservative budget minister, said:
    “It faithfully reflects the image that a good deal of investors have of France…because we have an overdose of tax, because they don’t see the necessary
    competiveness reforms.”

    The row came as the European Commission predicted that French growth this year will expand just 0.1pc compared with the government’s 0.8pc forecast. France will also fail to meet its 3 per cent budget-deficit target, the Commission added, forecasting the deficit to be 3.7pc of GDP.

    To me this spat is not about comparisons with other nation statistics, but about how France is dealing with it's competitiveness, labour relations and business performance.


    Incidently I might add that the american company Cooper Tire & Rubber Company bought Avon Tyres Ltd, based in Melksham, England.  Standard Products CompanyMickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels. In 2003 Cooper agreed to a joint venture with Kenda Rubber Industrial Company, to construct a tire-manufacturing plant near Shanghai. Cooper agreed to purchase 11% of the Kumho Tires Company, and also announced the formation of a new commercial division encompassing both Oliver Rubber Company and commercial tires. In 2005 Cooper announced an agreement to obtain 51% ownership in China’s, Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Passenger Tire Company Ltd., and Cooper Chengshan (Shandong) Truck Tire Company Ltd., to produce truck and passenger car tires for mainland Chinese and export markets. Cooper generates 25% of its global sales in the People's Republic of China. In 2007 Cooper sold its Oliver Rubber Company subsidiary, which produced tread rubber and retreading equipment, to Michelin for $69 million. At the end of 2011. Cooper bought Serbian Trayal tires from Kruševac. Cooper took over a unit of Trayal Korporacija AD from Bulgarian company Brikel EAD for $13 million and invested as much as $50 million.

    Investing in UK, the EU, and China, But nothing in France.

    Cooper is the second largest United States-based tire company, after Goodyear.,


     

×
×
  • Create New...